From the editor
Ed Mullen

This issue of Practice and Research features the Center's second invitational conference, Knowledge for Practice: Practitioners and Researchers as Partners, which examined practitioner-research partnerships in knowledge development for professional social work practice. The conference articles were prepared under the editorship of Associate Professor Peg Hess, who also served as conference director. Major papers are summarized and will be available in a forthcoming volume.

This issue also includes synopses of several Center research studies, a list of recent publications of Center affiliates, and a description of Center activities.

We are eager to hear from readers and welcome suggestions for areas of study or collaboration.

As this issue of the newsletter illustrates, the Center has enjoyed a very productive year. Particularly noteworthy has been the work of the Center Development Council under the leadership of David Lindau. .Three members of the Development Council not only contributed their ideas, but also gave generously to finance the invitational conference: Virginia Marks, Frances Beatman and David Lindau. The conference's success far exceeded initial expectations, thanks to the commitment of Conference Planning Committee members Bruce Grellong, Doris Rosenberg, Pauline Falk, Helen Rehr and Peg Hess.

During the past year faculty staff and doctoral students conceived, developed and implemented many new projects. Proposals have been developed to study preadolescent suicidal ideation and behavior; the effectiveness of suicidal training on staff identification of potential suicide in a clinical population of preadolescents; alternative, nonstigmatizing on-site mental health services for older adults; group prevention program for minority adolescents at high risk of contracting HIV, and associated mental health problems; group parenting skills program for skipped-generation children raised by grandparents; environmental quality for the severely mentally ill; and development of a computerized scan as a tool for social work assessment. A proposal has been submitted to establish a research center for the study of child and adolescent health services. Work is proceeding on the development of studies pertaining to a neighborhood-based group education program for minority adolescents at-risk of AIDS; an assessment of early intervention programs for new parents; and computer applications for social work practice.

The Center has benefited from affiliation with a number of faculty, including associate professor Peg Hess and assistant professors Denise Burnette, Helene Jackson, Mark Mattaini and Ada Mui. We welcome assistant professor Neil Guterman as a new faculty affiliate for the 1993-94 academic year. Agency staff affiliates have included Annaclare van Dalen, Audrey Weiner, Robert Abramovitz, Bruce Grellong, Nina Koh and Jonathan Katz. Doctoral students have included Jennifer Magnabosco, Carl Hesselbart, Mark Cameron, Marion Riedel, Karun Singh and Julia Stewart. We welcome Karun Singh as the Center's new Administrative Coordinator. This has indeed been a remarkable fifth year for the Center, and we anticipate exciting developments in the year ahead.